1967 AWD Diesel Chevelle Malibu 4-Door

[Liquidbeaver]

Hello everyone!

I've posted about my project at a few other sites, but I wanted to post it here too, as the underpinnings of my car are going to be completely custom, and I have no concern with anything but solid design. This lends itself well to a lot of Pro-Touring setups.

I was lucky enough to just recently move into The Race Cave in Denver, a shop owned by the regional director of the National Auto Sport Association. The opportunity to move to this shop will not only save me a ton of money in one-off parts, having years of racing knowledge in the form of many drivers/designers and visitors, I will have the space needed to shave a year or more off the length of this project.

Now, onto the build - dubbed Project Mordor!

I will be taking this car...

...A 1967 Chevelle Malibu 4-Door (originally gold on gold) and turning it into my dream car that I have been planning for going on 8 years now. The drivetrain will be a 2006-2007 LBZ mated to the Allison (or a 4L80E if that is too big), and a NV149 transfer case out of a Denali for AWD.

The first few steps, that will also take the most time, are:

• Take the body off the frame. Box the center section of the frame and reinforce everything.

• Design and install custom roll cage. I have designed a one-of-a-kind double hoop roll cage, so the rear is a relative mirror of the front. It is very, very important to me to retain seating in the rear. Both bench seats will be removed because of safety. I'll be sad to see them go as I've never had this unique of a driving experience of a car in my life. Plan is to replace both benches with 4 racing seats, a Recaro Sportser CS for me, and Corbeau Evolutions for everyone else. I plan to install and extend a center console all the way to the rear to hopefully make it look better. 4 point Schroth racing harnesses throughout. Roll cage (and frame) will be painted or powdercoated fluorescent green.

• Minitub if needed.

• I would like to get ~275/xx/18's or larger all the way around. I am going for a square setup for the AWD, but with the added benefit of better rotations, and it limits further contribution to understeer,

• Smooth the fire wall and recess 6" to 1'. A Duramax is the same depth and width as a big block Chevy, it is just taller because of both the depth of the oil pans and the amount of accessories on top. I want to clear up more space in the front because it is going to be really tight with all the coolers, radiators, and front diff. up there, so I plan on having to notch back the center section of the fire wall quite a bit. It will allow me to both center the weight in the car better, as well as lower the engine down because of extra oil pan clearance.

• Custom floor pan grid and flat floor pans. I need to get as much ground clearance and head clearance as possible. Currently the bench seats both sit on platforms, and there are all kinds of other high and low spots in the floor pan. I have to cut so much out to fit the new tunnel and get clearance for the front drive shaft that it makes more sense to just build the floor to exactly what I need. I will be welding in a grid of square tubing to support 14 gauge floor pan plates. The plates themselves will be sealed and HD riveted to the grid, and the transmission tunnel will be removable.

• HDLP Skid plates for the front half of the car, and one for the diff.

• New suspension. I am leaning towards air bags, but I am still able to be swayed if a different setup wins over performance-wise. New upper and lower front control arms will be absolutely necessary, and I may be "remote" mounting the shocks because of clearance issues. I'd like to be able to set it on the frame for security and looks, but that isn't a must.

• Rear end from the donor truck will be trimmed down to fit the car. Gearing will probably be very high, so 2.xx's. Front diff has to match it.

• Install new InfinityBox wiring system. These things, while expensive, are so damn cool and will really clear up a lot of headaches later. Not to mention they are incredibly capable wiring systems.http://infinitybox.com/

• Dakota Digital VHX gauge cluster. The only extra gauges I will need will be boost, transmission temp, and pyrometer. It's possible to have the display on the cluster show these, but I would have to push a button to scroll through each of them, they don't have a dedicated gauge. http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd798.htm

• Reuse truck radiator/intercooler, or do split radiators if it improves space. Mounting at an angle with electric motors is also an option.

• battery bank moved to rear.

• ~40 gallon fuel cell in the trunk. The trunk on this thing is really, really massive, so there is plenty of room for a low and wide fuel cell that won't affect my ground clearance. Rough napkin math is you gain 3-5 MPG per every 1,000 lbs of weight you shed. The Chevelle is already 4,000 lbs lighter than the HD truck, minus how much weight I add beefing up the frame, adding the roll cage, etc.. Even conservatively at 2 MPG/1k lbs, I will be around 32 MPG. This doesn't take into account much lower rolling resistance, custom tunes, much better aerodynamics, etc. My goal is to break 40mpg (this type of project has already hit 36-38 really consistently), or hit the limit of the Duramax MPG, whichever comes first. I think 40+ is well within reach with an OD transmission.

• Turbo inlet was originally going to be through one of the headlight openings like the Chevelle in the link below, but I like the look of 4 headlight too much to do that. I will instead find, or make, a scoop to pull from under the center section of the bumper, around where the hood latch is.

• Exhaust routing TBD. It will be 4-5" from the collector back, so it may be routed through the crossmember. May end up double-mufflering it if it is a single outlet, depending on what it sounds like. Going with Magnaflows as I had them on my last Camaro and loved them. Quite a big difference than my multiple sets of Dronemasters.

• New side mirrors? Side mirrors on this car were dealer added most of the time (including mine), so the variation in their placement is huge. I can't open my wing windows without swinging my side mirrors away first. Definitely going to fix that, but might go with a more modern mirror at the same time. Maybe something with signals?

• Aftermarket A/C to replace stock A/C. This is both for more space in the engine bay, and modern controls (no cables/vacuum).

• Interior will be predominantly gunmetal gray with black accents.

• Color will either matte blue, matte black, or Artesian Turquoise (old Chevy color) inspired by this amazing car: http://image.adam.automotive.com/f/4...e-quarter-view

Other than small custom details here and there, that is the bulk of the project.



Previous picture of the shop on move-in day:


Currently the car looks like this:



As of right now, I have taken 4 rolling chassis and turned them into street legal, moderately powerful (most horsepower was 425/450 ftlbs), muscle cars. For the last 8 years I have wanted to build my dream car, and each time I went through the options, I kept coming back to diesel. I wanted uniqueness, difficulty, MPG, power (360hp/650ftlbs stock will be outrageous in a 3k lb car.), and it is a project that I will get to complete with my brothers and Dad, maybe the last one we get to do together. I have no concern for resell value, if I did I would have gotten a 2 door. I've had coupes, and for this, I wanted something I could actually bring people along in.

Thanks for reading everyone, and I look forward to keeping you all irregularly updated!

[raustinss]

My God this ..."thing" sounds cool already . A buddy of mine has a 68 El Camino and I've said for yrs a d max would be awesome underhood

[kingcrunch]

Definitely subscribed.
This sounds so weird in a good way.

How do you plan to build the front end? What kind of components can you use to put an AWD front under that vehicle with the engine hanging so low?

For example - Mercedes had to put the axle shaft right through the oil pan on their W124 series because the 4-Matic AWD would not fit any other way.
Some of these problems made me stick with 2wd for my "race truck".

[Liquidbeaver]

Definitely subscribed.
This sounds so weird in a good way.

How do you plan to build the front end? What kind of components can you use to put an AWD front under that vehicle with the engine hanging so low?

For example - Mercedes had to put the axle shaft right through the oil pan on their W124 series because the 4-Matic AWD would not fit any other way.
Some of these problems made me stick with 2wd for my "race truck".

So I actually figured out how to do it from the way a Chevy Syclone is set up. They are basically the lightweight versions of a tall 4WD truck setup, except slammed to the ground and a AWD viscous-coupling transfer case instead of a 4WD one. Most of the reason I have to set the engine back into the firewall is to get clearance for the front axle tube, so that I don't have to run it through the middle of a custom oilpan. It just so happens it has the added benefit of lowering the center of gravity a LOT and drastically improving the weight distribution too.

For the Chevelle I will run the Duramax to the (most likely) 4L80E, and then to a NVG149 AWD transfer case out of a Denali. Originally I was going to get a NV249 Selec-Trac (Fulltime AWD/Fulltime 2WD/HI/LO) and beef it up (basically what ended up in the H2 Hummer), but costs were going to be higher. I was baffled to find out that the Denali's are actually AWD and not 4WD, and have a very, very tough viscous-coupling AWD transfer case.

Because it will be so low to the ground, I will have to "mickey-mouse-ear" the transmission tunnel, basically adding another tube right next to it for driveshaft clearance. I already wanted to rework the floorpans to a flat-style anyway, so this makes it all that much easier that I don't have to match those contours or anything. I could just make the trans tunnel extra wide on the bottom edge of the drivers side floorpan if I wanted to, instead of doing the ear.

Once I get the driveshaft up to the front, directly on the centerline of where the wheels are now will be the 8.25 IFS differential from the donor truck. These diffs have all the standard gear ratios available to match to any Chevy rearend I choose, so no problems there. It is already offset to the driver's side to match up with the setup in the truck, so all I am doing is squashing it down for clearance. The diff will sit just below the frame so that at full compression the CV shafts won't hit anything. I will borrow the spindles from the donor truck as well, and make custom a-arms. They will be the round tube, straight style, no nonsense race type.

I actually found a 50 year old hand drawn layout of the Chevelle frame directly from the Chevy Engineers. Since it is drawn to scale, I was able to model it in Google Sketchup, which let me lay out all my plans like this:

http://imgur.com/WLBdqbQ

Red plane is the firewall, and green sections are new steel.

My newest model that I don't have a picture of actually has the front diff in place and all the drivelines, so I can plan ahead.

The K-Member will be cut out for clearance, and relocated underneath whereever the engine is going to sit. I will just replace it with a more modern style round tube one instead.

Because I will be running a square wheel/tire setup, I have to open up the front so that I still have a good steering radius. The stock frame has a lot of space to begin with, and is only really limited by the inner fenders. I am taking out the stock ones, and putting back a flat sheetmetal version instead, to open up more turning radius.

The other aspect of allowing it to still steer is the angle of the a-arms (how wide they are). A skinny setup has more clearance, but less strength, and the opposite is true for wide ones. My solution is, since I am opening up all of this space near the radiator, is to run my shocks inboard along the frame. A rod will go from the lower a-arm up to a cam, which will be hooked to the top of the shocks. This will give me all kinds of clearance behind the spindle for the CVDs.

All in all, it is very similar to a Syclone, except with stronger parts. The Duramax is INSANELY powerful. A mild tune from most diesel places, with no new hardparts, gets the stock LBZ+ setup to near 500hp, with 850 ft/lbs of torque. Even if I added 1k lbs of weight with all the extra metal I am putting into the roll cage, floor, and frame, I still wouldn't come anywhere close to the point where that engine will notice. I could put four 500 lb people in the car and I still wouldn't reach the weight of the stock truck.

The build is functionally pretty simple, what makes it seem complicated is that no one has brought it all into one car before. I've had to find inspiration with road racers, rock crawlers (my brother), drag cars, boats, you name it.

The hardest part of the build is only really going to be making sure I design it from the beginning so that the Duramax doesn't tear it apart. I want to be able to beat the crap out of this when I am done, and it will never be confused for a trailer queen. It tows the trailer queens.

[Che70velle]

Nice!! There are quite a few 70' chevelle's out there with a dirtymax in them, so the idea isn't that new, although I haven't seen one on a 67'. I like your enthusiasm. To consider doing an AWD car is cool. To make it a more-door is even cooler. I have to believe that you are going to run into real estate issues with the front end driveline components. The Google Sketchup drawing you have is showing the engine at least a foot too high, maybe 14" up. Maybe you've set it high purposely to allow for the driveline room up there? That would make it tough to get a transmission in the car, as you'd have to raise the tunnel up to match. Rising the tunnel up a couple inches is quite normal these days, but you'd be going up a lot. And then the hood clearance is an issue. In my 70' my alternator (with factory GM truck accessories) misses the hood by about an inch, and I've got my LS engine as low as my Holley pan would allow. I custom built engine mounts to allow my engine to sit as low as possible. Not trying to be Debbie downer here, by any means, only trying to point out the obvious. I've seen guys try to build AWD camaros in the past, and most never finish the project, and abandon it. I hope you make this happen!
This is a cool idea, nonetheless.

[andrewb70]

Sounds like a packaging nightmare. Looking forward to progress. If you can inbed the pictures into your posts, that would be appreciated.

Andrew

[Liquidbeaver]

Nice!! There are quite a few 70' chevelle's out there with a dirtymax in them, so the idea isn't that new, although I haven't seen one on a 67'. I like your enthusiasm. To consider doing an AWD car is cool. To make it a more-door is even cooler. I have to believe that you are going to run into real estate issues with the front end driveline components. The Google Sketchup drawing you have is showing the engine at least a foot too high, maybe 14" up. Maybe you've set it high purposely to allow for the driveline room up there? That would make it tough to get a transmission in the car, as you'd have to raise the tunnel up to match. Rising the tunnel up a couple inches is quite normal these days, but you'd be going up a lot. And then the hood clearance is an issue. In my 70' my alternator (with factory GM truck accessories) misses the hood by about an inch, and I've got my LS engine as low as my Holley pan would allow. I custom built engine mounts to allow my engine to sit as low as possible. Not trying to be Debbie downer here, by any means, only trying to point out the obvious. I've seen guys try to build AWD camaros in the past, and most never finish the project, and abandon it. I hope you make this happen!
This is a cool idea, nonetheless.

Before I started planning this project the only Duramax musclecar you could find was the one they built on Pimp My Ride. Over the years more and more people have tried it, and a few have even made build threads. There is an amazing 60's Camaro, and a Tri-Turbo Chevelle that are absolutely beautiful. I'm really lucky to be able to reference all of them when it comes to fitment and performance goals.

In regards to the sketchup drawing, you are absolutely right. That snapshot was from when I was checking to see if I could put the harmonic balancer above the axle tube. This also explains why it is only an inch or so into the firewall. My more recent model is much, much lower, and farther back. I will be notching the firewall about 6", and cutting a lot out of the upper and lower oilpans. If my math is right, my oilpan will still be slightly lower than the lowest part of the front of my frame, so my new K-member will also have an integrated skidplate. I plan on kicking the side of the oil pan out, or going to dry sump if need be. The front driveline can actually run level with the center of the output shaft of the transmission. On my model I have about two inches of clearance everywhere, but if that ends up not being true because of the body I will either remove the interfering body panels, or put a u-joint and pillow block in so I can turn the driveshaft.

Even if the fitment fails catastrophically (which I have spent years planning around) with the front diff where I prefer it to be, I have a backup plan where I will borrow a drivetrain solution that they use for sand buggies and monster trucks.

If you have the Holley pan I am thinking of, our engines will be roughly the same height. All of the accessories and other crap on top of the Duramax can be moved for more hood clearance, so then it becomes just a matter of fitting the big block dimensions into it.

I'm leaving the framerails where they are, but cutting out the K-member allows me to place the engine where it needs to be and then building support structure around it. My only concern is not letting anything be visible from the outside, so if I have to add a lot of metal in the front to support it that is okay with me.

I've seen a lot of those AWD builds, and only know of one that was finished, which is why I waited so long to start this. I wanted to be absolutely sure it would work, and that I was starting it at a good point in my life where I would actually be able to devote time and money to it. My brother and Dad are both fabricators with two different backgrounds, and being in the shop will allow me to get multiple other perspectives on the project, so that I can run my ideas off of people.

I don't think you're being a Debbie Downer. I want people to try to poke holes in my ideas. It lets me work on solutions to problems I haven't encountered yet in real life, and brings the car one step closer to being on the road.

Thank you for your interest, and I look forward to showing everyone Project Mordor one day.

[Liquidbeaver]

Sounds like a packaging nightmare. Looking forward to progress. If you can inbed the pictures into your posts, that would be appreciated.

Andrew

Good idea, I will imbed the pictures when I get home.

[2xs]

This sounds freaking awesome! I'm looking forward to the build and maybe to seeing it in person as I'm in the Denver area also. Defenitenly will be one of a kind Duramax and all wheel drive with four doors good lawd ! Should be brutal in the corners.

[1sikride]

Did this happen ?

[70_velle]

Did this ever get finished????